Media, Markets, and Morals - Softcover

The media, including new media, affects each of us in myriad ways on a daily basis, entertaining us, informing us, and shaping our opinions. It is a fundamental institution of contemporary society. This book investigates the moral role of the media, both ‘old’ and ‘new’, and develops and applies an original ethical framework based on the inherent ethical structure of information. It shows how the media as disseminators of information, online and offline, are committed by their role morality to distinctive ethical demands, which apply to both media organizations and those who work for them.

The book also considers the challenges and temptations which stand in the way of meeting those demands; it does so by focusing on the domination of the media by large organizations, many of which are multi-million dollar, powerful commercial enterprises, driven by financial imperatives which can be in tension, or even conflict, with the role morality of the media.

The authors apply their account of the role morality of the media to specific morally problematic practices and question how ethical behavior can be promoted within the media.

Edward H. Spence is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), Australia, and Research Fellow at the 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology, Netherlands. He also teaches media ethics in the School of Communication and Creative Industries at Charles Sturt University, NSW, Australia. He is the author of Advertising Ethics with Brett Van Heekeren (2005), Corruption and Anti-Corruption: A Philosophical Approach with Seumas Miller and Peter Roberts (2005), Ethics Within Reason: A Neo-Gewirthian Approach (2006), and co-editor of The Good Life in a Technological Age (forthcoming) with Philip Brey and Adam Briggle. 

Aaron Quinn is Assistant Professor of Journalism at California State University, Chico. He has published work in academic journals including The Journal of Mass Media Ethics and The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, and contributed chapters published by Oxford University Press and Cambridge Scholars Press. He previously worked as a newspaper and magazine reporter, photographer and editor.

Andrew Alexandra is Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Australian Research Council funded Special Research Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE) at the University of Melbourne. He has published Police Ethics, co-authored with J. Blackler and S. Miller, (1997, 2006), Private Military Companies: Ethics, Theory and Practice, co-edited with D. Baker and M. Caparini, (2008), and Integrity Systems for Occupations, co-authored with Seumas Miller, (2010).

Anne Dunn is Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the University of Sydney, and was Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 2009 to 2010. She has written on media ethics for academic journals including Ethical Space and is co-author with H. Fulton, R. Huisman and J. Murphet of Narrative and Media (Campbridge University Press 2005). She spent more than 20 years working as a presenter, media researcher, journalist, producer and director for commercial television, SBS and for the ABC. Her work includes award-winning television and film documentaries.